Kenzan Hassleberry
Despite speaking and acting like a military drill sergeant, Kenzan is really good at dueling. He based his two decks around a dinosaurs and the rest of them, he has picked up some slacker like habits where he lazes about when it comes to his studies but he is not stupid and puts some effort into his classes to where he passes them. Although, he appears intimidating, Kenzan is actually a fairly easy person to make friends with and sticks up for his friends when they’re in trouble. And like the majority of the group (except for Judai), he shares a common annoyance with spoiled rich kid Chazz Princeton and doesn’t understand why he is dragged along to hang out with them. He takes proud in voicing his opinions and will do what it takes to be heard, even if no one’s listening. And unlike some of the other guys, when it comes to girls, Kenzan is quite the gentleman, as he doesn’t mind complimenting a girl on how beautiful she looks even if they themselves do not believe they are. Obviously a lot of people find this strange, for guys around Kenzan’s age are usually perverted horn dogs. But he is not and he tries to encourage the male portion of his friends NOT to act so desperate. From time to time, Kenzan is seen getting into fights with Syrus, the both of them often competing to prove which is a better best friend for Judai which is weird but they do it. And while he likes to strongly (sometimes loudly), voice his opinion on something, he won’t hesitate to throw in a retort or two if necessary and especially whenever Chazz says something smart that he doesn’t like. Yeah, the two of them don’t see eye to eye all that much. And because he has dinosaur DNA inside of him, he finds it annoying when people insult the species, calling them dumb creatures and then look his way whenever they discuss the topic. He is not stupid and wishes everyone would stop thinking that he is. Also, due to the DNA, Kenzan will go into a state where he acts in a beastly manner and will attack anyone but when he is snapped out of this, he doesn’t remember a thing that he did while the DNA in him was activated forcefully. Appearance Kenzan is 5’5” with dark olive green eyes, though occasionally his pupils are narrowed into reptile like slits that makes his eyes lighten and look more like a dinosaur’s and he has long, black dreadlocks. Kenzan is Japanese African American; making him light skinned, as his father was black and his mother was a Caucasian Japanese woman. He has muscles, obviously making him ripped due to going on exercising and going on archeological digs with his fathers which made him quite fit physically. For his attire, he usually wears a yellow jacket that originally had sleeves but is now sleeveless over a short-sleeved white Jurassic Park t-shirt (or he wears a green muscle shirt) with beige combat camouflage pants, white wristbands with magic bands just above his feet, a bandana featuring a dinosaur face, bone earrings and a necklace of dinosaur bones. He owns a Kaiba Corp made duel disc that he wears on his left wrist. History Kenzan Hassleberry was born in Atlanta, Georgia to parents Allen Hassleberry and Mabry Hassleberry. Both of them met each other while attending Georgia Institute of Technology (or Georgia Tech) during their college years. Mabry was studying to get her major in Architecture while Allen was earning his major in Research & Development dealing with Environmental causes. In reality, Allen really wanted to become an Archeologist but the schools that had such courses, were not in Atlanta, but located in other states and unfortunately, he didn’t have the money nor a scholarship to say go to one of those schools or at least visit to check the place out. So unfortunately, he had no choice but to settle. It was either that or enlist himself into the Army like his own father had done, stay in it for awhile and get his education that way. Obviously, he’d gone for the choice of settling rather than becoming a controlling drill sergeant. As for how he’d met Mabry, she was looking for her own class and came into his by mistake. He’d offered to help her find her class since it was clear that she was lost, trying to find her way around the school (even though she’d been there for two years at the time). It was then the two of them found that they’d shared some things in common. Mabry thought that Allen being interested in archeology was amazing and that if he was ever given an opportunity to study in that field, he should jump on it. Not many African Americans are well known in that field and she thought it would be interesting if he’d actually discovered something and became famous for it. After all, their race had been stereotyped throughout history and it was time that changed. Allen also hoped that Mabry succeeded in becoming and architect since she seemed to love glancing at the structure of buildings all around her, wherever she went. The two of them had gotten to know each more and more, starting with hanging out, and then study sessions, exam cramming, and eventually the two of them fell in love. They married right after the two of them graduated from Georgia Tech and a year later they had their first and only child together which they’d named Kenzan. By the time he was born, Allen had been decided to enlist into the Army and was called away for duty, leaving Mabry to take care of their son. So for the majority of Kenzan’s childhood, his father was often away. Whenever his father did return home, he would tell Kenzan stories about what all he’d done while in the army. Mabry didn’t approve of this but didn’t complain since he was making up for the lost time he hadn’t gotten to spend with their son. Kenzan idolized his father, wanting to be strong and courageous just like him. Saying stuff like he’ll join the army when he grows up and be a hero. And of course, Allen would talk him out of it and would tell him to follow his own dreams, as he didn’t have to follow in his footsteps. Allen was only doing right by his family in order to put food on the table, even if his life was put in danger in the process. Kenzan, being the innocent child that he was, whined about this but instead agreed that he would become an archeologist like Allen wanted to be. And thanks to watching a whole bunch of dinosaur shows and movies, he wanted to learn more about dinosaurs and find cool fossils to show his classmates. Why ruin a kid’s dream? And Kenzan got along great with other kids despite the fact that he was living on an army post with other families who’s spouses and/or children were also enlisted. So, both Mabry and Kenzan were covered completely. As Kenzan got older, his love for dinosaurs didn’t change. He’d even gotten into playing the duel monsters card game, thanks to some of the neighborhood kids introducing it to him. And because the game had all sorts of different cards and races of monsters, this is how he discovered that there were also dinosaur related cards in the game as well or reptilian if you want to get technical with it. He studied, learned and eventually became really good at dueling. His mother even decided to acknowledge her son’s interest in this game and bought him a duel disk and some cards. But she was only doing it in hopes of making sure his mind stayed off of talking about eventually joining the army as it was enough when his father was barely home, she didn’t want to deal with it all over again with Kenzan when he eventually becomes eighteen. That was gone and his focus was now on dueling and becoming an archeologist. His father eventually did finish his duty of serving in the army for four years to five years and was allowed to leave but only to be aware of the notion that he might be called away again if his services are needed. Until then, he made up for lost time with is son and wife. He’d even gone back to school, while his wife worked and Kenzan went to school. By the time Kenzan was twelve, his father had managed to become an archeologist after going on a five-month drip to an island to uncover any artifacts or fossils of old bones that were worth saving and placing in a museum. But similar to the army, this job of his required him to leave a lot and be gone for so many months. Kenzan begged his father constantly to let him come with him on one of his digs but his mother was against it, for she didn’t want him to get himself hurt. He’d beg every summer vacation until his mother would cave in and let him go with his father on one of his digs. Allen didn’t mind as it would allow him and his son to bond more but Mabry was getting tired of the constant coming and going. But she didn’t want to stop her husband or their son from spending time with one another so during one summer when Kenzan was thirteen, he’d gone on an archeological dig with his father. Things started out fine until a rockslide occurred while they were in the middle of finding some old bones of a dinosaur that Kenzan found. Although Allen was fine, Kenzan ended up getting hurt and hospitalized in the process. The incident permanently damaged the tibia of his left leg, but the bone fragment of a dinosaur fossil he unearthed during the excavation was used to replace it. It is implied that this accident is also the reason for Kenzan’s unique ability to narrow his pupils into reptile-like slits. After this incident, Mabry became fed up and divorced Allen and taking custody of Kenzan and moving to Tokyo, Japan where she’d been hired as an architect as she was noticed for the amazing designs she’d come up with while working in Atlanta. She was aware that a move like this would be difficult for her son but she told him that things wouldn’t change too much. Kenzan didn’t want to leave his the place he’d grown up in, or his father for that matter but he’d realized a long time ago that mothers worry and are very overprotective … too much for their own good. He was enrolled into Tsukuba Academy late in the middle of the year to finish up where he left off since he never completed his seventh grade year in junior high. Originally, he was supposed to be enrolled into Juuban Municipal Junior High, but because of the construction they were doing at the time with combining all three Juuban schools together to create an academy with all grade levels, they weren’t taking any more students that were enrolling so late in the year. Tsukuba Academy is an expensive school, but Mabry is managing to afford it with her job as best she can. Kenzan, on the other hand, found the school to be nothing for a bunch of stuck up rich kids as he first encountered spoiled rich student Chazz Princeton who was an eighth grader around the time he’d started as a seventh grader. It was then that Kenzan displayed a natural dislike for people like him who believed that money was everything and it could buy people and happiness. It was a year later when he’d been promoted to eighth grade that he’d met students Judai Yuki and Syrus Truesdale who were ninth year students taking beginner level classes for their grade level. This is when Kenzan began to open up more, especially when it came to speaking his mind and sticking up for his friends. He was surprised to know that there were students at Tsukuba Academy that dueled but it wasn’t very many of them. Luckily, he’d met Judai and Syrus when he had. Around them, he’d prefer them to address him by his last name instead of his first, and talks to them as if he was a drill sergeant (possibly could come from hanging around his grandfather on his father’s side from time to time), having a habit of going ‘Sam Hill!’ depending on the situation. He has a southern accent that is very noticeable and cowboy and military jargon anytime he opens his mouth. Kenzan addresses Judai as ‘Sergeant’ and everyone as ‘Soldier’. He also has a habit of fighting with Syrus over who is better suited to being Judai’s best friend, much to everyone’s annoyance. Just like his father, he idolizes Judai’s skills as a duelist and copies him from time to time by lazing about in his studies. Kenzan is very smart even though many tend to disagree and think otherwise. Kenzan still hopes to become an archeologist but also wants to become a Pro Duelist as well. But he’s taking things a step at a time. He lives on the Tsukuba Academy campus, rooming with both Syrus and Judai in their dorm room. Plot Coming Soon! Powers & Abilities Unwillingly, Kenzan the dinosaur DNA that was used to replace a bone in his leg for some strange reason seems to awaken within him, giving him the ability of being unable to be converted by certain types of evil that would try and make an attempt to corrupt his mind. This also gives him the unique ability to narrow his pupils into reptile like slits. However, when this happens, Kenzan usually acts unlike himself and it would have to take knocking him around a bit just to get him to revert back to his normal self. The dinosaur DNA also reacts to different yet unknown signals that would cause him to go into such a state to where he acts and speaks as if he were a dinosaur himself. Love Interests Coming Soon! Kenzan's Deck List SEASON TWO DECK SEASON THREE DECK Trivia *Kenzan speaks with a southern accent *He often says 'Sam Hill' which is a euphemism for 'Hell' or 'Damn' along with the stereotypical cowboy slang and military jargon. Also See *Judai Yuki *Syrus Truesdale